Besides Garriot's broad, sweeping, ridiculous, over-generalizing statements; his critique of failed programmers and artists being lumped into the designer category and not really being rigorous about it sounds valid enough. But there are way more interesting designers, even in the AAA space, than he gives credit.

I really enjoyed the article on game writing. Bissell is absolutely correct that the purpose of games is not "quite" to tell stories. Gears of War certainly isn't a paragon of game writing, but the perspective Bissell gives is certainly interesting.

Most game designers are restricted by the requirements dictated by the publisher. So there's no room for grand designs, but lots of room for smaller tweaks and innovations. The BF series has had been basically the same gameplay for the past decade, but minor design changes have added much to subsequent versions. For example, the loss of hearing if you're standing too close to tank fire in BF2 or the fully destructible environments of BFBC2. It's odd that he points to Roberts as being this great game designer when he's been following this same iterative model for decades.

That being said, there are lots of great new AAA designs coming out of major studios. Jon Shafer's XCom design was a fantastic design the diverged massively from the original while retaining the aspects that made it so fun. Dishonored, with both a unique setting and gameplay elements, was lauded. And the Shooter-ARPG BL 1 & 2 introduced a new gamestyle and was one of the first to use cel-shaded graphics. And while not from a major studio, Zeno Clash was also a great new design both in gameplay and art style.

avianflu wrote on Mar 20, 2013, 10:29:Garriot is trying to alienate all of his game dev peers in one fell swoop.

Well, it's true. But he's set for life and can say what he wants. Maybe some of the designers will even wake up. Maybe it'll be good to have someone around who doesn't have to worry about his next paycheck, yet still seems to have a real interest in actual gaming. He can go out into the industry press and shake some trees.

Or maybe he's just a really good self-promoter and is using his press time to make a lot of noise so his Kickstarter gets even more money.

We won't really know the answer to that until everyone sees what he's made.

This could even be one of those John Romero moments where we witness the beginning of the end.

nwerner wrote on Mar 20, 2013, 10:52:apparently Lord British considers 'Minecraft' an app--not a game.

Minecraft is more like a "design your own game" kit rather than a game in and of itself (which is what makes it so compelling to play with, frankly). It's a lot like digital Legos. You can have a lot of fun with Legos but the fun comes in what you make of them not from the blocks themselves.

Designers in the game industry have been driven by the publishing houses to "design" more of the same. They do that because it's what keeps them employed. Some of them couldn't come up with an original idea to save their lives and others are just too scared to try. Most of the truly original stuff comes out of the indie game world and anything that truly catches on with players is quickly usurped into the commercial realm and iterated into oblivion. It's not something that is unique to gaming either as it happens in film, TV and novels too. Anything that is uniquely entertaining this year will be next year's, "Jesus Christ! More of this?"

Bhruic wrote on Mar 20, 2013, 10:22:I'm not sure what game designers are getting most of the flak for innovation. Until the recent trend with Kickstarter, most dev studios were at the mercy of their publisher. It's hard to do much innovation when the publisher wants you to churn out the latest clone of the last successful game.

And, while there have been some good, successful, innovative Kickstarters, most of the money is going to sequels.

A new Carmageddon? A series that ran out of steam after 1 game? Innovative!

But some of those RPG sequels will probably be amazing and hit some new ground thanks to new technology.

This is an amusing combination of two similar interviews. Garriott is a guy who hasn't made a good game in years tooting his own horn. Then we've got Tom Bissell in a ridiculously long interview about video game storytelling when his latest contribution is writing the poorly reviewed script for a Gears of War game...

I'm not sure what game designers are getting most of the flak for innovation. Until the recent trend with Kickstarter, most dev studios were at the mercy of their publisher. It's hard to do much innovation when the publisher wants you to churn out the latest clone of the last successful game.

I’ve met virtually no one…who I think is close to as good a game designer as I am.

Because Tabula Rasa was *such* a good game!

Should have left that ego in orbit.

While I generally agree... I'm not sure what went on with that game, nor how much interference there was by other stakeholders. Granted, I can't fault NCSoft for pushing the game out when Garriot was working on it way way too long... but something tells me that it suffered from "Duke Nuke 'Em Forever Syndrom", with several "start over" phases.

Ultima IX was pure EA interference.

So, we'll see if he still has anything left, as a designer, when Shroud of the Avatar is done.

But yeah... he needs to keep that Ego in check, cuz his last few attempts ain't been all that great.

I actually loved U9. The amount of technical issues was staggering and it was apparently a blasphemy as far as an Ultima goes(I didn't care), but I had a ton of fun with it once I got it working.

As much as anybody might dislike Richard Garriott, it's hard to disagree with his opinion of developers based on the crap getting churned out these days.

Although the argument might be made that some of the problem is the amount of money put into and expected out of AAA titles leads to 'streamlined' game design decisions to appeal to larger audiences...

I’ve met virtually no one…who I think is close to as good a game designer as I am.

Because Tabula Rasa was *such* a good game!

Should have left that ego in orbit.

While I generally agree... I'm not sure what went on with that game, nor how much interference there was by other stakeholders. Granted, I can't fault NCSoft for pushing the game out when Garriot was working on it way way too long... but something tells me that it suffered from "Duke Nuke 'Em Forever Syndrom", with several "start over" phases.

Ultima IX was pure EA interference.

So, we'll see if he still has anything left, as a designer, when Shroud of the Avatar is done.

But yeah... he needs to keep that Ego in check, cuz his last few attempts ain't been all that great.